At the time of this writing, the Syrian crisis is in its fifth year, with rising toll in human casualties and refugees despite a temporary truce agreed few months ago. The civil war grinds on with no apparent end in sight. As a result, the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ (R2P) norm after the Libyan crisis (2011) has come under serious review and scepticism.

Despite failings and flaws, this is not to say that foreign interventions in support of R2P will never occur in the future. They might do and some may be even may successful; however, given the trends the doctrine’s implementation in undertaking future military interventions is likely to be more selective, cautious and circumstantially based.